My Air Canada flight had a great new interactive 3D map feature, which let me trace my route across Canada and America with a swipe of the finger like Google maps.
I then watched a movie that included a scene which mirrored my own debate about where I should start this ride from:
The airport in Halifax was very quiet, which the security guards told us was because this wasn’t a normal scheduled flight due to the cancellation on Wednesday.
I suspect that Friend of the Blog Chris West, double bass player, who commented yesterday on his satisfaction at seeing me, a violinist, struggle with the kind of outsize luggage that is his everyday burden, would have enjoyed collecting the one and only item in this quiet corner of baggage reclaim.
Then it was over to the hotel in the shuttle bus, squeezing the bike box in with only a centimetre or two to spare. Once again, I thought of Chris West and tours of America we did together in the 1990s when we were often met at the airport by minivans like this because we were only eleven people, and how much space could we need? Chris’s bass would occasionally just be rested gently across our laps for the journey to the hotel.
After admiring the art works in the lobby…
…which completely failed to remind me of the Crombie House Gallery of Canadian Art I visited in 2017 a few miles north of here in Abercrombie, Nova Scotia…
…I set up my bike workshop in Room 125 and reassembled everything ready for the road.
Then it was supper and a beer at the Hidden Gem (neither word applies) and a pretty early night. Today is a bit fluid – the basic idea is to try and see some of Halifax, get some supplies for the next few days, and cycle to a campsite around 22 miles away for the ‘proper’ start tomorrow morning. The weather forecast is very iffy – rain on and off today, but muggy and warm at least – so it looks like a soggy start, but I may be praying for this kind of weather in a few weeks time when I’m boiling up down south!
INCIDENTSᐧOFᐧTRAVEL 
Neither word applies! If Dreamworks did revelatory art works… Sounds like you’re off to a solid start, and great that everything arrived in one piece! Must be nice to have the bike assembled. Enjoy the Grand Départ however you decide to do it!
P.s. re the film, Halifax advert…?
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You’re absolutely right, it really was great to have everything go so smoothly. Cardboard luggage is a little unnerving! I’ve just squashed it all up for recycling (the hotel is obliging) and I’m thanking them by having an extraordinary amount of the free breakfast on offer, whilst my backpack seems strangely heavier…bandits at 7 o’clock! Never leave large bowls of conveniently-sized peanut butter portions lying around when a cyclist’s staying the night.
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Nothing wrong with a bit of banditry in your circumstances! Peanut butter, it’s like they saw you coming… Hope all goes well with the camping tonight!
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BTW, I like the Halifax ad suggestion. I’ve just posted the first clue in ‘comments’ below (or above, I have no idea where!)
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Solved while I was away! I’ve never actually seen that film so would never have got there.
Just rode past Canada House on my way to the train, got to be an excellent omen that.
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Gosford Park???
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Good guess, Anna, but no. First clue – 1939!
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Darkest Hour?
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💥 You nailed it! It’s from the attempt to make Lord Halifax the new Prime Minister instead of Churchill, who was seen by the Tory party as a war- monger.
It must be Halifax! Xx
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